Nikki Levy Interiors / NLI / Studio by Nikki Levy review: Interior design

We contracted this designer to design our entire new build house. We paid a $15,000 fee plus 25% of anything she purchased or designed. Throughout the process, we were presented with certain designs and options. Later on, she would tell us it wasn’t available, too expensive (without ever showing the price) etc. All of her alternative options included custom furniture, paint, etc. We believe making everything custom, would increase the price of all items purchase which in turn made her more commission. Also, a popular option she presented for the entire house, was faux painting. Again, we believed this allowed her to make up any quote without having to purchase materials such as wallpaper, wall coverings, material to cover a fireplace drywall, etc, and we felt catfished.

All furnishings were pressured and designed to be custom made at exorbitant high prices. We feel she was involved in conspiracy with the furniture maker to set prices. Again, this makes her more of the 25% by selling higher priced items that are not in the best interest of the client, but rather her. She failed to show fabrics, prices, etc until we filed suit. The sofa we did not approve but for anyway was made of plastic and looked like was built and covered by a child.

We outlined our priorities to purchase and they were not honored. Her software defaults the toggle to approved without us even opening the software. I reported this to her several times.

A few things we had to hunt down because they were never delivered. We had paid in full for the items plus her commission. Some items that we paid for are never made or delivered. She kept monies for almost a year before refunding us “some” because it would qualify as actual theft. Some monies we never received back. She kept commissions we paid on items we didn’t received or had to track down and then throw away bc the “custom items” were faulty and broke almost immediately . Invoices and vendor info that had to be approved by us per her contract, were not provided. Her husband begrudgingly handed over invoices after I told him I will tell everyone I know what they are doing. He had initially refused my request on the phone.

We had to sue to recover money back on broken and faulty items and some items that were never delivered. She has since fought to get my reviews taken down (even though I have not violated any terms) and has had friends and family post positive reviews for her (about 10 were posted the same day) to boost her ratings. Several people contacted us after they got wind of the situation to share that they had fired her for similar reasons. Old employees of hers contacted us to tell us about experiences and she had her lawyer threaten to sue them.

During this suit, she has refused to turn over discovery which would show contractor quotes, vendor info, and other info that we should've been privy to per her contract. They have ignored a judge's demand to turn it over. It seems to me, that to take that chance, you might be protecting something bigger. Her attorney, Geoffrey Cahen, has continually threatened my husband to claim he has extorted them- how he has done this, we are not sure. If anything, they have done nothing but play a dishonest, unethical game and are angry because I have reported them to several agencies and on public reviews.

Sketchy doesn't even start to describe her and the way she runs her business. Why is it all such a secret? Every other person we have worked with has no issue providing info to us when asked. We have wonderful, long term relationships with everyone else we have hired and worked with. We have had multiple people reach out to us to tell us their stories, as well as found out about other lawsuits filed or ones that were going to be filed but she silenced them as well. Old employees have reached out to sympathize with our story. This is not just us who has had a horrible experience that she has spent lots of money to hide. She hired a PR firm for reputation repair. The “articles” are obvious, pathetic attempts to make her look legit. Red Flag. Watch out for this one.